A gift

Oh wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel’s as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
And foolish notion.

With appreciation to Steve Goodey for offering me a gift this week. I mean it. Thanks for the feedback.

Steve still hasn’t published my 31 August comment in reply to his ‘smear smite and bash’ post about thePaepae.com … a full five days later, it’s probably a lost cause.

So I guess in Steve Goodey-speak “I’d really like to hear your opinion” … translates as “I’d really like to hear your opinion unless you’re Peter Aranyi (or you disagree with me)”?

That’s a pity — and contrasts with the approach I try to take with critics (even ‘Anonymous 3.27am‘ and ‘Slapper’) — which has no doubt been influenced by my background and experience. Refer to my former ‘Morning Report’ colleague Kim Hill’s comments about public disagreements quoted in this post. – P

Comment from a sockpuppet*:

Not in every case, but yes, mostly. (Not spam or bile, obviously.) One way or another.

I published your last ‘contribution’ on PropertyTalk … titled “Deception leaves clues” with a few thoughts of my own about False pretences …

I’m not a geek’s armpit Whitt, but there are other clues. I know from my (strictly ‘Learner’s plate’) admin role at thePaepae.com that people commenting and posting leave a trail. It’s amazing how much spam (oops, sorry, ‘internet marketing’) even my humble lil’ blog attracts.

For instance, someone attempted to post the original muddled message that started this thread as a comment on my 8th August post on thePaepae.com about Kieran’s vent/infomercial: Kieran Trass: “I was lied to by ‘locusts’ ”.
They entered a user name NZPG and an email address nzpg @ nzpg.com (… implying NZ Property Gurus, yes?)

(click to enlarge)

The only trouble is, a quick whois search shows the nzpg.com domain is owned by a guy called Andrteas (sic) Wolf from Rudolstadt, Germany — and as far as I can see he’s nothing to do with Dean Letfus and Shaun Stenning, the NZ Property Gurus … um … er … business operators (whatever).

So, why be misleading? It reminded me of Kieran Trass’s accusation: ‘False pretences’… which is what led me to think it was a prank or a spoof.

Because deceptive bullshit like that is unwelcome on my blog, I didn’t approve the comment (Ah, the power, Igor!) … which, I guess prompted the artist formerly known as ‘New Zealand Property Guru’ to make his remark here about ‘undue moderation’ … implying, don’t you think, that he/she posted the comment to thePaepae.com and knew it hadn’t passed muster.

My point is: people playing ducks and drakes leave clues — not necessarily IP address based.

I have only one log-in and identity for PT — this one. When I joined PT in 2003 I used PeterEmpowerEd as my user name so as to be transparent about who I am, not to shove marketing down people’s throats. I’ve discussed that before.

So I have no problem taking Lisa’s hint. Thanks. Gotcha. A nod is as good as a wink.

* “A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception within an online community. In its earliest usage, a sockpuppet was a false identity through which a member of an Internet community speaks with or about himself or herself, pretending to be a different person, like a ventriloquist manipulating a hand puppet.
In current usage, the perception of the term has been extended beyond second identities of people who already post in a forum or blog to include other uses of misleading online identities. For example, a New York Times article claims that “sockpuppeting” is defined as “the act of creating a fake online identity to praise, defend or create the illusion of support for one’s self, allies or company.” — Wikipedia